The present invention generally relates to the field of electrical wire testing and, more particularly, to methods and systems for determining the position of a short circuit in a branched wire system.
Aged wiring can lead to detrimental conditions, such as short circuits. When the aged wiring is located in, for example, commercial or military aircraft, space vehicles, or nuclear power plants, the aged wiring can lead to serious consequences.
Although conventional methods and systems can locate wire shorts in simple wiring systems, those conventional methods and systems cannot locate wire shorts in branched wiring systems without measuring data for each individual branch of the wiring system. For purposes of this disclosure, a branched wiring system comprises at least three wires that are electrically coupled at a node. Each wire group (e.g., a twisted-pair wire) that is electrically coupled at the node is referred to as a branch herein. As branched wiring systems can have many branches, the testing of each branch of a branched wiring systems using conventional methods and systems requires significant time and costs. Further, the testing itself can break or damage the wires merely by connecting the wires to the testing device. There, thus, is a risk of damaging each branch of the wiring system when it is tested.